Isaiah 42:19, commentary and pictures

The verse names God's chosen, sent and perfect servant as blind and deaf, seeing many things without observing and with ears open without hearing. It belongs to the revelation of His purpose for Israel as His servant to trust Him rather than finite men, set among promises to give the servant for a covenant and a light, to open blind eyes, to lead the blind, to make darkness light, and to magnify the law. In its weight it exposes the failure of those who should see and hear truth, whose eyes and ears do not secure right judgment or right use. Those who held the other sense teach it as chosen refusal of evil, with eyes and ears sanctified and closed to what God forbids so as to see as He sees, joined to a call for deeper trust in God and thorough reformation under the Holy Spirit.

Servant's Identity and Setting

Isaiah 42:19 belongs to a section in which God reveals His purpose for His people. That section identifies Israel as God's servant and teaches reliance on God rather than on finite human beings for wisdom and salvation. In that setting the blindness and deafness itself is left unexplained.
The titles servant, messenger, he that is perfect, and the Lord's servant can also apply to anyone God selects and appoints to do a certain work. One so selected becomes a minister of His will even when as ignorant of His will as Nebuchadnezzar was.

The surrounding context promises to give the servant for a covenant and a light of the Gentiles. It promises to open blind eyes and to bring prisoners from the prison and from darkness. It promises to bring the blind by a way they did not know and to lead them in paths they have not known, to make darkness light before them and crooked things straight without forsaking them. For the Lord's righteousness it promises to magnify the law and make it honorable, while those trusting graven and molten images are turned back greatly ashamed.

The chapter stands among words of encouragement and assurance. Its word is among the promises that will be fulfilled.

Blindness and Deafness Explained

The verse describes God's own chosen, sent and perfect servant and messenger as blind and deaf. That condition is defined as seeing many things without observing them and opening the ears without hearing. In its negative sense it exposes the failure of those who should be able to see and hear God's truth. Having eyes and ears does not by itself ensure sound judgment or right use of what is seen and heard. In that failure the servant is presented as spoiled.

In its positive sense the same blindness and deafness portrays deliberate refusal of evil. The servant does not use the eyes to see evil things and does not use the ears to hear evil things. He does not follow the counsel of the wicked. That chosen blindness and deafness means eyes sanctified not to contemplate evil, not to rest upon iniquity, and not to grasp the things of sight and lose eternity out of reckoning. It means ears sanctified and closed to everything forbidden in God's Word.

So sanctified, the servant sees to purpose, seeing as God sees and seeing aright. By closing eyes and ears to evil and by beholding Jesus he is changed into His likeness, with every organ, power and ability brought into conformity with the will of God. It is a blessing not to hear or see everything that could properly be ignored. Clear spiritual sight discerns one's own shortcomings and faults, and a quick ear receives needed reproof, correction and instruction. But carelessness toward instruction makes a person forget what was heard and fail to act on it.

Calling to Trust and Reform

The blindness and deafness of the sent servant and messenger, who sees many things without observing and opens the ears without hearing, belongs to the work now before God's people. That work is a testing message for this time, to bear startling, decided messages out of the usual order that warn and arouse those dead in trespasses and sins while judgments are in the land. It is to bring the blind by a path they did not know and lead them in paths they have not known, to make darkness light before them and crooked things straight without forsaking them, while those trusting graven and molten images are turned back greatly ashamed and the Lord for His righteousness' sake magnifies the law and makes it honorable. Studied in connection with Isaiah 40, the message of Isaiah 42 is addressed to a mixed company whose hearts are not prepared to receive God's messages and who do not understand deeply spiritual work, calling them to receive His messages and to carry forward a reformatory work in deeply spiritual lines. That thorough reformation requires men of clear understanding worked by the Holy Spirit to lead out in it.

The truth of this context is to be brought to bear upon human hearts in healing work. In that healing work Christ is the truth personified, who in His humanity was the example in all words and works. Reading the servant and messenger as blind and deaf and spoiled calls for more trust and confidence in God than has yet been manifested. Such trust is needed in order to stand where God can work with His people and to honor and glorify Him in unknown times ahead.

The verse requires men to understand God's claims upon them. Judgment will come upon anyone who comes between fellow men and their God, interposing a work God has not appointed that leads into paths not cast up for the ransomed and holds back a work that would otherwise be much farther advanced. God provides men and means so that His work moves just as He ordained it to move, in distinct, holy, sacred lines. In Isaiah 42 Christ unites the majesty of an omnipotent King with the gentleness and tenderness of a caretaking shepherd, for all His works are known to Him from the beginning and His kingdom comes not with outward observation but by the gentleness of the inspiration of His word and the operation of His Spirit in the soul. The set time to favor Zion is soon coming, and God will not leave His people to shame but will accomplish His work.